Methane emissions from trees planted on a closed landfill site

Alice Fraser-McDonald; Carl Boardman; Toni Gladding; Stephen Burnley; Vincent Gauci

doi:10.1177/0734242X221086955

Methane emissions from trees planted on a closed landfill site

Alice Fraser-McDonald^*, Carl Boardman, Toni Gladding, Stephen Burnley, Vincent Gauci

^*Corresponding author for this work

Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

27 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Trees have morphological adaptations that allow methane (CH₄) generated below ground to bypass oxidation in aerobic surface soils. This natural phenomenon however has not been measured in a landfill context where planted trees may alter the composition and magnitude of CH₄ fluxes from the surface. To address this research gap, we measured tree stem and soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CH₄ and CO₂) from a closed UK landfill and comparable natural site, using an off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy analyser and flux chambers. Analyses showed average CH₄ stem fluxes from the landfill and non-landfill sites were 31.8 ± 24.4 µg m^–2 h^–1 and –0.3 ± 0.2 µg m^–2 h^–1, respectively. The landfill site showed seasonal patterns in CH₄ and CO₂ stem emissions, but no significant patterns were observed in CH₄ and CO₂ fluxes at different stem heights or between tree species. Tree stem emissions accounted for 39% of the total CH₄ surface flux (7% of the CO₂); a previously unknown contribution that should be included in future carbon assessments.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1618-1628
Number of pages	11
Journal	Waste Management and Research
Volume	40
Issue number	11
Early online date	5 Apr 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X221086955
Publication status	Published - Nov 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: The manuscript is based on thesis work which was internally funded by The Open University.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.

Keywords

Carbon cycle
GHG emissions
landfill
spatial variability
temporal variability
tree stem CH

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Environmental Engineering
Waste Management and Disposal
Pollution

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FraserMcdonaldA2022MethaneFinal published version, 1.22 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Cite this

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title = "Methane emissions from trees planted on a closed landfill site",

abstract = "Trees have morphological adaptations that allow methane (CH4) generated below ground to bypass oxidation in aerobic surface soils. This natural phenomenon however has not been measured in a landfill context where planted trees may alter the composition and magnitude of CH4 fluxes from the surface. To address this research gap, we measured tree stem and soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CH4 and CO2) from a closed UK landfill and comparable natural site, using an off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy analyser and flux chambers. Analyses showed average CH4 stem fluxes from the landfill and non-landfill sites were 31.8 ± 24.4 µg m–2 h–1 and –0.3 ± 0.2 µg m–2 h–1, respectively. The landfill site showed seasonal patterns in CH4 and CO2 stem emissions, but no significant patterns were observed in CH4 and CO2 fluxes at different stem heights or between tree species. Tree stem emissions accounted for 39% of the total CH4 surface flux (7% of the CO2); a previously unknown contribution that should be included in future carbon assessments.",

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N1 - Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: The manuscript is based on thesis work which was internally funded by The Open University. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.

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Methane emissions from trees planted on a closed landfill site

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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